ProMedica Bay Park Hospital Notifies Patients of Privacy Breach

On April 2, Bay Park Hospital discovered that between April 1, 2013 and April 1, 2014, an employee accessed the records of patients that the employee was not directly treating without a valid business reason. An investigation found the information the employee accessed may have included full name, date of birth, diagnosis, hospital visit number, medical record number, attending physician, medications and other clinical information. Based on our records, we don’t believe the information accessed by the employee contained any financial information including Social Security numbers or that the employee intended to retain any viewed information.

Bay Park Hospital values patient privacy and deeply regrets that this incident occurred. Patients impacted will receive individual letters containing further details including a complimentary one-year membership of identity theft protection services. Additional steps impacted patients can take to help reduce the chances of identity theft include placing a 90-fraud alert and a security freeze on their credit file, ordering free annual credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com and carefully reviewing credit reports and bank, credit card and other account statements. Patients who do not receive letters and feel they may have been impacted can email promedicaprivacy@promedica.org. Patients with questions should also send an email to promedicaprivacy@promedica.org.

Protecting patient privacy is of the upmost importance at Bay Park Hospital. Once we discovered the breach, ProMedica immediately deactivated the employee’s access to patient information and the individual is no longer employed by ProMedica. Bay Park Hospital is taking precautions to prevent any further health information breaches. This includes additional training for employees to ensure they understand and follow patient information access policies. The breach has been reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

About ProMedica Bay Park Hospital
ProMedica Bay Park Hospital is a member of Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica, a mission-based, not-for-profit healthcare organization formed in 1986. ProMedica has more than 15,000 employees and nearly 1,900 physicians – with more than 600 healthcare providers employed by ProMedica Physicians. Its 12 hospitals and more than 300 facilities offer comprehensive diagnostic, medical and surgical specialties in heart and vascular, oncology, orthopaedics, neurology, and women and pediatric services. ProMedica’s mission is to improve health and well-being, with a strong focus on wellness and clinical excellence, as well as innovative, community advocacy programs that address health-related issues such as hunger and obesity. For more information, please visit www.promedica.org.